


The Things Unspoken (the About Last Night remix)

by Phoebe_Zeitgeist



Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-04
Updated: 2014-05-04
Packaged: 2018-01-21 23:13:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1567511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phoebe_Zeitgeist/pseuds/Phoebe_Zeitgeist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes questions need to be asked.  Sometimes you might not mind hearing the answer, but even the Wise shouldn't count on it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Things Unspoken (the About Last Night remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eyebrowofdoom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eyebrowofdoom/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The Question](https://archiveofourown.org/works/269394) by [eyebrowofdoom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eyebrowofdoom/pseuds/eyebrowofdoom). 
  * Inspired by [The Question](https://archiveofourown.org/works/269394) by [eyebrowofdoom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eyebrowofdoom/pseuds/eyebrowofdoom). 



> In the author's notes for "The Question," eyebrowofdoom says, "Set early in Book III, which is the first book of The Two Towers. However, starts fiddling with the plot and indeed the geography of TTT after the remainder of the fellowship's arrival in Fangorn." In remixing I have similarly taken liberties with the events of The Two Towers, though somewhat different ones, but have done my best to keep the geography intact.

On the sixth day following the disaster at Parth Galen, the last three of the Fellowship stood with the White Rider at the very edges of Fangorn Forest, looking out across the meads of Rohan, and prepared to depart on their separate journeys. 

It was a parting all were loathe to make, yet need allowed no alternative. The horses Arod and Hasufel had fled and not returned, and the threat to Rohan was too pressing for Gandalf's errand to Theoden to be delayed. And even Shadowfax, greatest of the horses of Middle-Earth, could not carry them all. "Here is another hard choice," Aragorn said. "For there is now no time. Wingfoot Eomer may have named me; but the leagues are long from Fangorn to Edoras. If we take that road now, on foot as we are, Rohan will have fallen before we can cross the Eastfold." 

"As it might in any case, if I cannot rouse Theoden to action," Gandalf replied. "But the threat is closer than Edoras. At the crossing of Isen must the blow fall first, should Saruman march in force from Isengard.. And Erkenbrand is ill-prepared to withstand it." 

"Yet one of us at least must travel next to Edoras," Aragorn said, "and so fulfil our given word."

"If you will take my counsel, let Gimli travel with me," Gandalf said. "For I would advise those who stay to travel under the cover of the wood, for as long as its concealment may serve. A task better suited to a son of Greenwood the Great than to a son of Durin! Shadowfax may of his courtesy bear us both. Likely enough we will come upon your horses, for on the meads of Westemnet they will come to their lord at his call."

Aragorn gazed long over the fields to the south, and he was silent. At last he said, "Let it be so, if Gimli will. My own heart now calls me to ride to war, but it is not always given to us to follow the paths we would."

"I will go, for I have an engagement to keep with Eomer," said Gimli. "And I shall be glad to be out of the shadow of these woods. But I am sorry to lose your company, Master Elf! And Aragorn's. I must trust that we shall meet again, though it be on the field of battle and all the hosts of Orthanc lie between us."

"As I shall be sorry to lose yours, Master Dwarf!" Legolas replied smiling. "Though for my part, I shall be glad of the chance to know Fangorn better." But his eyes rested on Aragorn as he spoke.

But Gandalf, looking narrowly at him, said, "Grievous indeed is our loss, and we will feel it strongly ere the year is much older, at Edoras and at Minas Tirith. Yet all is not yet lost, as it might easily have been. Therefore I say to you, Aragorn son of Arathorn, cease to regret your decisions in the Emyn Muil! You could not choose other than you did, and indeed, well it is for us that you did not take the easier path. Hope remains, so long as we hold fast to our purposes."

"Yet on foot and travelling under cover of the wood, we will not come even to the fords of Isen before many days are passed." But as Aragorn looked upon Shadowfax he felt despair lift from him, and he laughed suddenly, long and free in the newly-bright air. "But well I recall advice you once gave the Company, Gandalf: 'If you bring a Ranger with you it is well to pay heed to his advice. And I say to you in turn, if a wizard passes through fire and deep water to bring you counsel, it is well to heed that counsel, particularly if the wizard is the White Rider. As I have begun, so I will continue, and in renewed hope. Look for us on the road to the Fords, if you would send word or aid. Go, and may the Valar speed your journey!"

Now Gandalf mounted Shadowfax and set Gimli before him. At a word from Gandalf the great horse leapt forward. As a creature of wind and light from the morning of the world he seemed to the eyes of Aragorn and Legolas, and they watched him as the sun fell from noon, until he vanished from even Legolas's keen sight.

 

When the shadows began to lengthen under the trees they turned back to the forest, for both felt the wisdom of Gandalf's counsel that they to shield their journey as best they might from unfriendly eyes. Though the land was quiet, the Eagles were not the only birds aloft, and the weather held clear, as though Sauron or Isengard, or both, felt the need of spies that would see far and clear. 

"Ours may prove the easier part, for a little while," Legolas said, lowering the hand that had shaded his eyes. "But it is hard to be left behind!"

"We must go warily," Aragorn said. "I mistrust this quiet. It not the quiet of peace, but the stillness that comes before a great storm. The eaves of Fangorn may be little shelter from it when it strikes."

"And two are weaker than three," Legolas agreed. "Already do I feel the price of our parting with Gimli. Yet in this wood we two have this advantage: we may move quietly and swiftly, and the forest itself will not be our foe."

"Though it may yet shelter those who are," said Aragorn. 

 

For all their watchfulness, this day's journey would have been easy and pleasant, but for the grief that was never far from their hearts. Aragorn chose their path to follow above the line of the Entwash, near enough that its music was ever in their ears, yet distant enough that it should not mask the sounds of others moving in the woods. The day warmed, and the signs of wakening spring were all around them, green shoots peeking from piles of the old year's fallen leaves, and the buds of trees swelling pink and gold. But as the afternoon wore on the stillness deepened around them, until the sound of the Entwash rang loud in the hush. 

At length they came to a stream that fell swift and deep down a rocky channel to join the river below. Aragorn examined the current, and followed the banks a little north and south. "There is no crossing here for us," he said at last. "Yet the waters of Fangorn have not fall to far ere they reach the Entwash. Let us climb a little. We need not go far upstream, I think, to find a better crossing." 

The sun was falling behind the treetops when they came to a place where the sound of falling water changed. The forest thinned before them, and cresting a rise they came suddenly upon a little shelf in the hill. Here, falling over high rocky ledges, the river had carved a deep pool, and spread to cover all but a single grassy bank before it reached the walls of the hill or spilled over to continue its journey to the Entwash. So clear the water was that even in the fading light the travelers could see the stones at its bottom as though through glass. 

"Here is a jewel indeed," Legolas said. "Do you smell it, Aragorn? No sweeter water have I known in Middle-Earth. And how clear it is! One might lie along the bank and reach an arm to draw up a pebble from the bottom, so close it seems."

Aragorn breathed deeply, and it seemed to him that he did perceive a scent, elusive and subtle yet distinct from the scents of the forest. There was stone in it, and clean flowers, and a clarity that was like athelas when it was crushed, with no hint of overripeness or corruption. "I do," he told Legolas, "and I marvel at it. For men's senses are not elven-keen. What think you? To me it seems wholesome, as the water of Nimrodel is wholesome, for all that there is a virtue on it."

"To me as well," Legolas said. "I perceive no taint in it, strange though it may be to find such a feast laid for us in the wild. I will drink and gladly, and refill all our bottles here as well." He was already bending to lift double handfuls of the water to his lips. "Will you?"

"Gladly," Aragorn agreed, dipping his hands into the pool. "Indeed, I would bathe in it, did I not fear I would defile it."

"With the dirt of our long travel?" Legolas asked, turning to look at him. For a moment it seemed to Aragorn that there was a hardness in the Elf's keen eyes. Then something in his face changed. "No, my friend," he said. "If you desire it, I think you will do the water no harm. I will keep watch, if you wish."

So Aragorn put aside his clothes and weapons, all but the pendant he wore about his neck, and slipped into the water. Very deep it was indeed, and strangely warm for waters arising from a mountain stream, and it seemed to him that as he bathed in it, some of the weariness and hurt of the journey were eased. "It is better than wholesome," he told Legolas, who kept his watch from a perch at the side of the pool, his bow to hand; for it seemed to Aragorn that his companion's eyes were often turned to him, as though Legolas were a nursemaid and Aragorn a small child likely to be drowned in the bath. Reluctant though he was, he climbed out of the water. "The night comes on apace. I will keep watch for you, if you will take your turn." 

He found himself wondering for a moment whether Legolas would take the opportunity, or even wish for it. The dust and dirt of the road touched the Eldar, even as it did Men, but it often seemed to Aragorn that it not to cling to them: that the skin and hair of the Eldar flung off dirt and grime as the down and feathers of waterfowl flung off water. But Legolas only nodded, and slipped out of his garments, and set his bow carefully away from the water to keep the bowstring dry. "But you must call me before it is too dark to climb further," he said, and dove into the water headfirst like a heron, graceful and terrible, with the beauty of the Eldar Race. Aragorn watched the shadows between the trees, and the ledges above them, but nothing moved there, and no sound came to his ears. Only once there was a faint rustle in the stillness, and a gleam of eyes peering from under the trees. His hand moved to the hilts of Anduril. But even as he waited the owner of the eyes took two wary steps forward and stood poised at the clearing's edge: a deer, come to drink at the close of day. For a moment her eyes met Aragorn's. Then she leapt into the air and was gone, vanishing into the shadows. 

He called to Legolas, reluctantly, when the deer had gone. "We need not go far, I think," he said, "for we are not likely to find a better place to camp tonight than near this pool. But beside it we are in the open, and an easy target for any watcher or enemy." 

"And on the ledges beside the waterfall we may be hard put to hear if danger approaches," Legolas said. 

"Yet there we may find shelter, and walls of a sort," Aragorn said. "Let us climb!"

At first it seemed to Aragorn that he had allowed his hopes to run ahead of his knowledge. The rocks and earth beside the waterfall were slippery and precarious, and more than once it seemed that they might fall. But the footing improved higher up, and when they had climbed a little more than halfway he found what he sought: a place where a ledge of granite thrust out to make the level floor of a cave, hollowed by time and water into the hillside. The sound of falling water within was faint, muffled by earth and rock, and while the air held a chill the cave was dry and sound. Here the travelers prepared to rest for the night.

Aragorn surveyed the open side of the ledge. Above was sheer rock and empty air; below it jutted out, so that he could look down onto the pool itself. The night had turned dark, and nothing reflected in the water. On each side the cave was hemmed in by the branches of trees, clinging to the rock on one side, and marching up the hill on the other. "It would be unwise to make a fire," he said, half to himself. "It will be a dark watch."

"Unwise, and uncomfortable," Legolas replied, from nearer than Aragorn had realized. "There is no chimney, and there would be smoke. But I will watch tonight, and the darkness at least will do us no disservice, for it is no barrier to the eyes of my people."

Aragorn shook his head. "But even the Elves become weary. You too need rest."

He felt the weight of Legolas's hand on his shoulder. "But we do not need sleep as your people do. And I think you have not slept two hours together since we were attacked at Perth Galen."

It was true enough, but it was not because there had been no opportunity. "No need, my friend. Sleep eludes me in any case. I shall take my watch."

"I know a cure for that." Legolas was closer now. Aragorn could feel the heat of his body by his side, and Legolas's hand tightened a little where it rested on his shoulder. 

It would be a bad time for any misunderstanding, and this might be a very bad misunderstanding. "I am not entirely certain," he said carefully, "that I know what sort of cure you mean."

"I think you do," Legolas said. There was a note of amusement in his voice now. "And I will say this to you, Aragorn. Long ages have I walked in Middle-Earth, and I have known the Lady Arwen for many lifetimes of Men. Less well do I know the usages of your people, but mine at least would not think you faithless." A shadow of a smile crossed his face, just visible in newly-emerging starlight. "Rather she would blame me, for letting you go sleepless."

Aragorn laughed then. "And blame me in my turn, for stubbornness." He let his arm rise to Legolas, his hand rest a moment in his pale hair before closing hard around the nape of his neck. "Come here, then, if you will."

 

Afterward he slept, and in his dreams there was darkness and fire, and a dreary, whining voice that he had hoped never to hear again. Minas Tirith's lower circles burned, under a sky that was dark even by day, while he rode endlessly at the head of a company of ghosts, in black tunnels beneath the mountains where the light would never come. Black-sailed ships out of Umbar beat their way up Anduin, and his own banner flew from the greatest ship, at the highest mast. Through it all a ring rolled in flame, and Aragorn knew that it sang as it rolled, though his ears could not hear its music. He became aware, slowly, that it would be doom to hear that song. But there was time, he need not hear it. He would set walls against it, he had stuffed his ears with wax — And then there came a single note, like the plucked string of a harp.

He woke all at once, heart pounding, with the dying resonances of the note still sounded in his ears, and in that moment he knew it for the sound of Legolas's bowstring. Legolas was standing at the edge of the cave looking down toward the pool below them. In the early light Aragorn could just see that Legolas had brought another arrow to the string, but his fingers were light on it and the bow unbent, and even as he watched Legolas lowered the bow and returned the arrow to its quiver. Whatever he had shot at, he had not thought it necessary to wake Aragorn, nor to be ready to shoot again. "What is it?" Aragorn whispered.

"Come and see," Legolas said. "I take no joy in this shot; and yet, I am glad of where he stood, and where I stood. At least the body will not sully the water."

Even at a distance and in the faint light, Aragorn recognized the creature who lay below with Legolas's arrow through his chest. "Gollum. You shot him unaware?"

Legolas shrugged. "Would you have had me wait until his hands were about your throat?"

The dead commonly looked pitiable, Aragorn was long familiar with the sorrow of it. Still the body on the woodland bank below them looked more piteous than most: old and twisted and helpless, as a thing that should have been comforted for its misery when it lived, and gone to a better rest. Against that, the voice in his dreams, that he had yearned never to hear again. And Legolas himself, only a day ago, refusing to shoot an old man unchallenged and unaware, though that old man might be Saruman himself. "It might have been better if you had," he said at last. "For you, at least. I would not have had you bear the weight of this deed, my friend."

"And well it is, I think, that you would not," Legolas said. "For in your strength and honor lies all our hope. Yet I will tell you plainly: were it better for me or no, I would not have dared to do other than I have done. Too much rested upon it. Let us give him what burial we may, and go."

Aragorn nodded, slowly. "That must be our next task. But — " he looked steadily out at the forest and water, not turning to look at his companion — "a decision remains after that is done. We must go our way, or our ways. I have wished it to be otherwise, but I know now what my road must be. You are not bound to it, and it would not have been your choice before Parth Galen; it may be less your choice now."

"Before Parth Galen, all of our choices would have been different," Legolas said equably. He had begun collecting their little gear and packing it for travel. "I would have gone with you where you led before, and I will go with you now."

"After Parth Galen, it is not only our choices that have changed. So too are the dangers we may face. As I think you know; or are you quite comfortable, after last night?"

Now Legolas laughed, and with his laughter the dawn seemed to brighten. "That at least is a danger I shall be happy to face, however often it may arise," he said. Then, sobering, he said, "Nay, I fear the thing you fear, Aragorn. Why else did I shoot the creature Smeagol, unwarned and unarmed? We could not have held him captive, nor taken him with us, nor would anything but death have stopped him from following your track. Our road lies East, and he would have betrayed us a thousand times over. And there was a worse evil that might have come upon us, than that the heir of Thranduil should act to repair Mirkwood's failure of vigilance. 

"I would not have your hand stained with his death, lest there be any wrong in it that evil might work upon. All now depends upon you, Ringbearer. If there was evil in killing him so, let the corruption fall upon me. It will do less harm thus."

"If corruption there be," Aragorn said, "I cannot see it in you." He did not speak again until they had laid Smeagol to rest as best they could, in a shallow cave amid the stones, where he might lie unmolested by crows and wolves, and washed once more in the pool. Its water was as clear and sweet as they had found it the night before, and Aragorn thought again of Legolas's dive, of the beauty of the Eldar and of the night past. "But I wonder still," he said. "You were aware that he was following us. Would you have had me sleep last night, and take my watch as well as yours, so that you would have the best chance of drawing him out, and taking the shot unopposed?"

Legolas was silent a long while. When he spoke at last, he said, "It is sung of Beren and Luthien that when Thingol her father laid the quest of the Silmaril upon Beren, it was Thingol's thought to send Beren to his death; and yet of that intention came great good, the mercy of the Valar and an end to Morgoth in Middle-Earth. On that long and dark road the two were often parted, and faced dangers alone as well as together. But there was another that undertook the task with them, and followed them even into Thangorodrim; and though the achievement was theirs in its greatest parts, it would not failed in the end but for that third."

"Huon, to whom it was given to understand the speech of men," Aragorn said. "But am I to think of you as a hound?"

"Huon was of the Valar," Legolas said, and laughter had returned to his voice. "It would be little enough insult. But I would have you consider: although Beren and Luthien would have failed without Huon, and though that failure would have doomed all lands save undying Valinor forever, Huon acted only for love of his companions. You and Arwen are both of the line of Beren and Luthien; if you share something of their doom, as some have thought, perhaps this too is woven into the web, that another shall have some small share in your deeds."

"A fair answer, but that was not the question," Aragorn said.

"Oh, I think it was," Legolas said. The morning was wearing on, and their path led now downhill. The sound of Entwash was ever louder in the silent wood. "And now I too have a question. Does Gandalf send horses to meet us? For he is a wizard subtle and far-seeing, and you and he spoke long together; among all his affairs he may have taken some thought for us. And if he does not, is it not past time we turned east?"


End file.
